Hero students highlight shift in school shooting guidance

BALTIMORE (AP) — The actions of students who died tackling gunmen at two U.S. campuses a week apart have been hailed as heroic. At a growing number of schools around the country, they also reflect guidance to students, at least in some situations, to do what they can to disrupt shootings.

A majority of school districts have now embraced such an approach, with experts saying educators need to give staff and students as many options as possible in the worst-case scenario.

"In all honesty, I don't know of another strategy," said teacher Kelly Chavis, whose Rock Hills, South Carolina, school endorses a strategy known as Avoid, Deny, Defend. "What else would you do if you did not try to get away in a situation?"

Many schools have stuck with the traditional approach of locking down classrooms and letting law enforcement confront the shooter, especially in grade-school settings. Encouraging students or faculty to do otherwise, critics say, could make them more of a target.

At the STEM School Highlands Ranch in suburban Denver, where student Kendrick Castillo was killed while confronting a gunman on Tuesday, the school uses a "Locks, Lights, Out of Sight" protocol, according to spokesman Gil Rudawsky. He declined to say whether any of the school's training for students addresses whether they should fight an intruder.

Riley Howell, 21, died thwarting a shooter last week at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Alert messages at that campus advised students to "Run, Hide, Fight."

There always have been students willing to take action, said Greg Crane, who founded the for-profit ALICE Institute, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. He said he created it in 2001 based on what had already been done by students including Jake Ryker, who tackled a...